Ever had suspension fasteners come loose?

[Klutch9]

A couple months back I replaced the front sway bar links on my van. For the past few weeks, I've heard a clunking noise coming from the front end. Long story short, one of the nuts for the driver's side link was loose. I am 100% sure they were nice and tight when installed. I've replaced end links several times before and have never had this happen. I guess I'll check the tightness for awhile every time I rotate the tires.

 

[anonobomber]

There's a difference between 'nice and tight' and 'tightened with a torque wrench to spec'. The 'tightened to a torque wrench with spec' is the preferred method and should never come loose on you.

 

[95busa]

Yes....same exact situation on my van. Impossible to get a torque wrench on the top bolts. I went with "tight as heck" the second time. Much mo better.

 

[bdcardinal]

Yup, usually from someone stupidly re-using a Nylok fastener.

 

[buck91]

Nope, though I rarely would reuse an endlink (mostly because they tend to either break or need cut apart in this state).

Only issue I've ever had is stripping out shock bolts when they use those stupid 2-bolts into the control arm stamping method.

 

[67lemans]

can't say that I have. I always torque to the required specification and recheck the fasteners after about a week of driving.

 

[CT8]

Usually properly torqued fasteners seldom loosen up.

 

[eljefino]

You could have had rust sandwiched in there that worked out.

 

[d00df00d]

Two cars ago, I had a '95 Maxima with cheap coilovers. The front ones had camber plates that I loved to play with. One time, I left the bolts loose. At least one of the struts were moving from side to side as I steered. That was... interesting.

Come to think of it, every aspect of owning cheap coilovers was interesting like that. Taught me a lot about what not to do with a car. But I digress...

 

[Klutch9]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
You could have had rust sandwiched in there that worked out.


Could be. I used the new hardware that came with the new end links, and tightened them really tight. The links are Beck/Arnley so I assume they are decent quality. Our roads are [censored] here so it probably just rattled loose.

 

[01rangerxl]

I have had to re-tighten Moog sway bar links on my truck. You aren't supposed to crank them down as tight as they will go, per the instructions, and I have had to go back and snug them up a little more.

I have seen a number of vehicles where the nuts for the sway bar links have worked loose, both with OEM and aftermarket links. In some cases, they were all the way off and the links were just flopping around.

 

[wander2039]

Yes.. but it was stripped. Does it has the locking nuts on it? The few sway bar link's I put on came with them and never backed off.

 

[ronbo]

Replaced 4 strut end links on my 04 Toyota RAV4 early this year.

How do you use a torque wrench when you need an allen wrench to hold the stud as you tighten with a combo wrench?

I guess you would use a crowfoot wrench on the torque wrench.

I just tightened the best I could.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Yup, usually from someone stupidly re-using a Nylok fastener.


I reused the axle nuts on my Jetta; they have plastic of some sort in them, and the manual says one-time use. I reused--I wanted to break them loose one weekend then do the job the following. [I didn't think I could break them loose in the first place, and would have to pay a shop to do the job.]

So I retightened best I could, and went to remove the following weekend. For as hard as those came off, and as hard as it was to break loose, I would not have guessed at how easy they would turn afterwards! practically bounced my head off the fender.

 

[Nick1994]

Loctite...

 

[ls1mike]

I can't recall one, but in the Navy on Submarine maintenance we are allowed to reuse Nylok fasteners. They have to meat a certain criteria for reuse. No reason you can't reuse them on a car. There is even an ASTM/ASME spec that talks about reuse of fasteners. You just have to meet the manufactures criteria.

 

[artificialist]

I have had this happen a few times on shock absorbers. After having this happen 3 times, I decided to put loctite on shock absorber bolts.

I sometimes had this problem with swaybar end links, but not with any other suspension part.